Since man’s first coordinated attempts to go airborne for the purposes of warfare (balloons used for artillery spotting in the Franco/Prussian War of 1871), opponents have speedily attempted to counter the aerial threat with ground based anti-aircraft weapons. And when the pace of war sped up, so the need for mobile AA weapons increased. During the opening phases of WW2, German ground forces enjoyed air superiority, and the need for mobile AA equipment was not a high priority. But by 1943, it became clear to German commanders that mobile AA weapons to keep pace with and offer protection for their mechanized units were required. Two existing tank chassis were used to provide the bulk of the Flakpanzer weapons, those being from the Panzer 38t and the Panzer IV vehicle series. The first Panzer IV chassis vehicle was the Mobelwagen, or “Moving Van,” initially mounting a quad 20mm Flak gun unit, but for the production series of vehicles, mounting a single barreled 37mm Flak 43.

History

The Red Army entered WWII with most of its heavy artillery drawn by horses, making its movement slow and vulnerable to attack. The KV-2 assault gun was built to address the need for mobile artillery, but it was unsatisfactory as a fighting vehicle, mainly because of its large and overweight turret. It was therefore decided to replace the KV-2 with a new vehicle based on the KV-1S chassis. But instead of a turret, the 152mm ML-20S gun-howitzer would be mounted in a low-profile casemate. Several designs were put forward, but the KV-14 showed most promise and was further developed into the SU-152 by February, 1943. This self-propelled gun weighed 45.5 tons and had armor up to 75mm thick; powered by a 600bhp V-2k diesel engine, it had a top speed of 43km/h. It was built at the Chelyabinskiy Kirovsky factory until replaced in production by the ISU-152 in December, 1943.

Archer Fine Transfers has and always had the best and largest variety of transfers than any other company. I would venture to say over 90% of us in the scale modeling hobby have used an Archer product in one way or another. Some modelers I have met only use transfers and will use decals only when it is absolutely necessary.

Archer’s transfers are always of the highest quality and detail, and so simple to apply. However, there should be a high degree of concentration when applying them to the model because any movement while burnishing the transfer will ruin it. Whenever possible, I always cut out the particular transfer that I am going to apply from the sheet because it is very possible that another transfer, too close to the one that is being applied, can accidently adhere itself to the model. This is one of the downfalls, but very easy to avoid. Also, with transfers there are no do-overs, so proper placement of these transfers is of utmost importance.

The book Ferdinand/Elefant: Detail In Action by David Doyle is a nice addition to the library of any German armor modeler. It is packed with 80 pages of drawings, photos, and information on the Ferdinand and Elefant tank destroyers. This book also contains a small part in the front covering the Porsche Tiger, which was the predecessor of the Ferdinand/Elefant. In fact, Ferdinand Porsche designed the suspension of these three behemoths.

My favorite part of these In Action books is always looking at the pictures of the actual vehicles during the war. From these photos you can get a sense of how used these tanks were, and how the paint schemes look as compared to the museum specimens. I enjoyed looking at the photos of these giant monsters. An interesting comparison is the photos of the damaged Ferdinand #501 as seen during its capture and, later, in modern times at the museum.

About the BTR-70

The BTR-70 is an eight-wheeled armored personnel carrier. BTR stands for Bronetransportyor (literally "armored transporter"), originally developed during the late 1960s under the industrial designator GAZ-4905. On August 21, 1972, it was accepted into service and would later be exported to the Warsaw Pact and other allies. Introduced as a successor to the earlier BTR-60, it most closely resembles a BTR-60PB. Other improvements include heavier armor plating and tires less prone to puncture. In other respects, the vehicle is very similar to the BTR-60PB, with a more powerful petrol engine configuration and armament of a primary heavy machine gun and secondary PKT machine gun on a roof-mounted turret.